Your body works in a similar way. Many people carry excess weight because their systems are weighted down with an overload of toxins from poor diets and the pollutants we face daily. Added to which, if you don’t drink enough water, your body retains fluid in an attempt to dilute these toxins and support your vital organs. The result? Weight gain.
According to recent studies by the US Environmental Protection Agency, over 400 chemicals have been found in human tissue – the majority of which are found in the blood, the liver and adipose tissue – commonly known as fat.
Let’s look at basic biology. Various systems in your body work together to keep you ‘on the road’ and functioning, and to do this, they all need fuel. When the quality of the fuel (air, water and food) is contaminated, they have to work even harder, because the body has no natural mechanism to deal with man-made toxins.
Initially, the major responsibility rests with the liver. If the liver is over-taxed and unsupported by the right sort of nutrients, something has got to give, so the job goes to the excretory system. If the kidneys can’t deal with the deluge of toxins in the blood, they send the toxins via the lymphatic system to a safe storage unit to your fat cells.
The more toxins your body has to deal with, the more fat cells it needs to store them, so a vicious cycle begins. As the body is burdened with more waste products, the slower your metabolism becomes, which can make losing weight a difficult task.
This diet works because it eliminates toxins in two ways: by cleansing your system and then nourishing it, so that you get a cleaner, slimmed down body fast!
Juices have a very high water content, so they ‘sweep’ through your body fast, hydrating the cells and helping your kidneys and lymphatic system to rid it of accumulated waste and toxins that create the fluid retention and make you sluggish and bloated. It also helps to improve elimination from the colon and prevents the re-absorption of toxins back into the system.
The juice and smoothie recipes, along with the snacks and supplements in the plan, are specifically designed to support and reinforce your systems with a super-charged cocktail of nutrients essential for health and vitality (see here for more about vital nutrients). When you juice, your machine takes all the hard work out of digestion as it extracts the fibre from the fruits and vegetables. This allows their health-boosting nutrients to be absorbed immediately by the body. Your system can function more efficiently, improving your metabolism and speeding up weight loss (see benefits of the juicing diet).
It’s important on any diet to consume enough calories. Too few and your body, programmed for survival, will think that it needs to protect itself from starvation and will store energy in the form of fat. This diet is designed so that you get just the right number of calories to ensure that you have all the energy you need for daily life and enable you to lose weight.